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200
Amrita
In the beginning of the 11th c. A. D. we have a beautiful romance in Surasundaricariya" of Dhaneśvaramuni. At the end of the work, he informs us that he was a pupil of the famous writers Jineśvara and Buddhisāgara, who belonged to the Candrakulīnagaccha. The work was written in A. D. 1038 in the town of Candrāvati.
This romance is divided into 16 Paricchedas and contains 4000 Gāthās It gives in the usual method of a romantic author, the love story of a Vidyādhara chief and his marriage with his beloved, after a long period of separation, marked by the alternate use of hope and despair. The device of a story being set into another is, here, used with considerable skill and success; while the whole structure of so many story-currents running parallel, comes to a close with appreciable effect. The writer says at the beginning that the story was written at the request of his elder sister Kalyāna-Mati, and was written in an easy style devoid of all poetic embellishments to make it comprehensible to ordinary people, a fact borne out fully by his production.
Earlier than A. D. 1052 is the Pañcamīkahā of Maheśvarasūri a pupil of Sajjanopādhyāya. The work is written to illustrate by means of stories, the importance of the vow of Srutapañcami. Two of these stories, those of Jayasena and Bhavisyadatta are given at greater length, than the other eight stories. The work has 2000 Gāthās on the whole.
· A little later lived the writer Candraprabhamahattara, whose small poem about the life of Vijayacandrakevalin in 1063 Gāthās, contains stories to illustrate the good effect of the worship of the Jinas. They are eight in number and illustrate the eight different ways of performing this worship. The writer belonged to the Vijayagaccha, and was a pupil of Abhayadevasūri. The work was written in A. D. 1070, at the request of his pupil Viradeva in the town of Devāvada, while the author was living in the temple of Rşabha. The style of the work is easy and without pretensions to high poetic flights
A big work, dealing with the last prophet of Jainism, is the Mahāvīracarita of Gunacandra who belonged to the Candrakulinagaccha. The author was a pupil of Sumativācaka, who, in turn, was a pupil of Prasannacandra at whose request the present work was composed. The date of the work is given as A. D. 1082.
The work is divided into eight Prastāvas and uses prose and verse indiscriminately. The author deals mainly with the legendary life of Mahāvīra, and has little historical sense. Half the work is devoted to the former lives of